The intervertebral disc (IVD) is a major weight bearing structure that undergoes degenerative changes with aging limiting its ability to dissipate axial spinal loading in an efficient manner resulting in the generation of low back pain. Low back pain is a number one global musculoskeletal disorder with massive socioeconomic impact. The WHO has nominated development of mesenchymal stem cells and bioscaffolds to promote IVD repair as primary research objectives. There is a clear imperative for the development of strategies to effectively treat IVD defects...

BACKGROUND: Chronic low back pain due to disc degeneration represents a major social and economic burden worldwide. The current standard of care is limited to symptomatic relief and no current approved therapy promotes disc regeneration. Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are easily accessible and well characterized. These MSCs are multipotent and exhibit great tissue regenerative potential including bone, cartilage, and fibrous tissue regeneration. The use of this cell-based biologic for treating protruding disc herniation and/or intervertebral disc degeneration is a promising therapeutic strategy, due to their known regenerative, immuno-modulatory and anti-inflammatory properties...

Low back pain is a prevalent disease, which leads to suffering and disabilities in a vast number of individuals. Degenerative disc diseases are usually the underlying causes of low back pain. However, the pathogenesis of degenerative disc diseases is highly complex and difficult to determine. Current therapies for degenerative disc diseases are various. In particular, cell-based therapies have proven to be effective and promising. Our research group has previously isolated and identified the cartilage endplate‑derived stem cells...

STUDY DESIGN: A systematic review and single arm meta-analysis of clinical trials. OBJECTIVE: To assess the efficacy of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) or chondrocyte in patients with discogenic low back pain. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: There is no previous review evaluated the efficacy of MSC or chondrocyte therapy in adults with discogenic low back pain. METHODS: A comprehensive literature search was conducted from database on PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid EMBASE, EBSCO and Web of Science from database inception through on September 10, 2015...

Low back pain with resultant loss of function, decreased productivity, and high economic costs is burdensome for both the individual and the society. Evidence suggests that intervertebral disc pathology is a major contributor to spine-related pain and degeneration. When commonly used conservative therapies fail, traditional percutaneous or surgical options may be beneficial for pain relief but are suboptimal because of their inability to alter disc microenvironment catabolism, restore disc tissue, and/or preserve native spine biomechanics...

Chronic low back pain is one of the leading public health problems in developed countries. Degeneration of the intervertebral disc (IVD) is a major pathological process implicated in low back pain, which is characterized by cellular apoptosis and senescence with reduced synthesis of extracellular matrix (ECM). Currently, there is no clinical therapy targeting the reversal of disc degeneration. Recent advances in cellular and molecular biology have provided an exciting approach to disc regeneration that focuses on the delivery of viable cells to the degenerative disc...

Degenerative discs can cause low back pain. Cell-based transplantation or growth factors therapy have been suggested as a strategy to stimulate disc regeneration. Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMDMSC) containing bone morphogenetic protein-7 (BMP-7) gene were constructed. We evaluated the effectiveness of these BMP-7 overexpressing cells on degenerative discs in rat tails. In vitro and in vivo studies were designed. In the first stage, the rats were divided into two group according to discs punctured by different needle gauges (18 gauge and 22 gauge)...

OBJECTIVE: The intervertebral disc (IVD) is composed of the external annulus fibrosus (AF) and the inner gel-like center, the nucleus pulposus (NP). The elastic NP can function to relieve stress and maintain IVD function by distributing hydraulic pressure evenly to annulus and endplate. Degeneration of the NP, which leads to increased death of NP cells, the loss of proteoglycan (PG), and aberrant gene expression, may result in an overall alteration of the biomechanics of the spinal column and cause low back pain...

We investigated the intrathecally administrated unbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UC-MSCs) by lumbar puncture and assessed the technical difficulties and effects in various neurological conditions. One hundred patients underwent subarachnoid placement of UC-MSCs between December 2006 and May 2010 in the Affiliated Hospital of Medicine. Technical difficulties in patients in the form of localization of subarachnoid space, number of attempts, and post-procedural complications were evaluated. Functional evaluation was done using Hauser Ambulation Index (HAI) by the stem cell transplant team on a regular basis...

Low back pain and degenerative disc disease are a significant cause of pain and disability worldwide. Advances in regenerative medicine and cell-based therapies, particularly the transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells and intervertebral disc chondrocytes, have led to the publication of numerous studies and clinical trials utilising these biological therapies to treat degenerative spinal conditions, often reporting favourable outcomes. Stem cell mediated disc regeneration may bridge the gap between the two current alternatives for patients with low back pain, often inadequate pain management at one end and invasive surgery at the other...

Patients with degenerative disc disease (DDD) experience serious clinical symptoms, including chronic low back pain. A series of therapies have been developed to treat DDD, including physical therapy and surgical treatment. However, the therapeutic effect of such treatments has remained insufficient. Recently, stem cell‑based therapy, in which stem cells are injected into the nucleus pulposus in degenerated intervertebral disc tissue, has appeared to be effective in the treatment of DDD. In the present study, the effect of adipose‑derived stem cells on degenerated nucleus pulposus cells was investigated using a co‑culture system to evaluate the biological activity of degenerated nucleus pulposus cells...

Low back pain caused by intervertebral disc degeneration is a common clinical chronic disease. The regenerative ability of intervertebral disc tissue is extremely poor. Meanwhile, current treating methods can not fundamentally solve such problems. With the increasing awareness of the mechanism of disc degeneration and the rapid development of the fields of cellular and molecular biology, gene and materials engineering, using stem cells and tissue engineering technology to slow down or reverse the progress of disc degeneration may become possible...

Low back pain affects more than 80% of adults. A proportion of these adults develops chronic low back pain (CLBP) and becomes disabled by their condition. CLBP is expensive to diagnose and treat and in terms of associated loss of productivity in the work place setting by affected individuals. Although challenging, the source of CLBP can be identified. Contemporary literature contains several studies that have established prevalence estimates for various structural sources of CLBP. In young adults, the intervertebral disk is a common source of CLBP, once it incurs annular injury that heals incompletely...

Intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration and consequent low-back pain present a major medical challenge. Nucleus pulposus-derived stem cells (NP-SCs) may lead to a novel therapy for this severe disease. It was recently shown that survival and function of mature NP cells are regulated in part by tissue stiffness. We hypothesized that modification of matrix stiffness will influence the ability of cultured NP-SCs to proliferate, survive, and differentiate into mature NP cells. NP-SCs were subcultured in three-dimensional matrices of varying degrees of stiffness as measured by the material's shear storage modulus...

Intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration is frequently associated with low back and neck pain, which accounts for disability worldwide. Despite the known outcomes of the IVD degeneration cascade, the treatment of IVD degeneration is limited in that available conservative and surgical treatments do not reverse the pathology or restore the IVD tissue. Regenerative medicine for IVD degeneration, by injection of IVD cells, chondrocytes or stem cells, has been extensively studied in the past decade in various animal models of induced IVD degeneration, and has progressed to clinical trials in the treatment of various spinal conditions...

Intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration and associated low back pain (LBP) remains a major burden to our society without significant improvements in treatment strategies or patient's quality of life. While the recent cell-transplantation studies for treatment of degenerative disc disease have shown promising results, to better gauge the success and functional outcomes of these therapies, it is crucial to understand if transplanted cells give rise to healthy nucleus pulposus (NP) tissue. NP cell phenotype is unique and is defined by expression of a characteristic set of markers that reflect specialized physiology and function...

Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is a widely recognized contributor to low back pain (LBP). The Prevention or reversal of IDD is a potential treatment for LBP. Unfortunately, current treatments for IDD are aimed at relieving symptoms rather than regenerating disc structure or function. Recently, the injection of growth factors and mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) transplantation have been shown to be promising biological therapies for IDD. Growth factors stimulate the proliferation of and matrix synthesis by intervertebral disc (IVD) cells, leading to the regeneration of degenerative discs...

INTRODUCTION: It is difficult to overestimate the personal and socioeconomic impact of chronic low back pain (CLBP). It is the leading cause of years lost to disability and poses the highest economic toll among chronic illnesses. Despite the strong need for extensive research efforts, few drugs have consistently demonstrated effectiveness for this condition. AREAS COVERED: In this review, the epidemiology, rationale for mechanism-based treatment, competitive environment and market trends, and the preclinical and clinical evidence supporting over 15 different classes of analgesic medications studied for CLBP or related pain conditions are discussed...

Intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration is one of the leading causes of low back pain, which affects a large proportion of the global population at a huge socioeconomic burden. Current treatments focus primarily on symptomatic pain relief or surgery, but offer relatively poor long-term efficacy as they fail to address the pathogenesis of the underlying IVD degeneration. In order to offer improved clinical outcomes, a number of biological and regenerative therapies are currently being developed which target the disease at a molecular and cellular level and aim to restore IVD function...